US travel ban ‘shameful display of hostility’: Iran FM

Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif has slammed the new US travel ban against the citizens of Iran and five other countries as a “shameful” act of hostility towards the Iranian nation.

“US now bans Iranian grandmothers from seeing their grandchildren, in a truly shameful exhibition of blind hostility to all Iranians,” Zarif tweeted on Friday.

The US Supreme Court on Monday partially reinstated President Donald Trump’s travel ban on refugees and people from six Muslim-majority countries, including Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen.

People from the six countries and all refugees are not allowed to enter the US unless they have “a credible claim of a bona fide relationship with a person or entity in the United States,” according to the court.

An Activist holds placards in protest at US President Donald Trump’s travel ban against the citizens of six Muslim countries at Los Angeles International Airport on June 29, 2017. (Photo by AFP)

Under the new rules, citizens of Iran, Syria, Sudan, Somalia, Libya and Yemen would be given a US visa only if they have a “close” family or business tie there.

The new guidelines do not allow grandparents, grandchildren, uncles, aunts, cousins and fiancés to travel to the US.

‘US must prove terror claims against Iranians’

In an interview with CNN, Iranian Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani slammed the travel ban against Iranian citizens and challenged Washington to prove if any of them have been involved in acts of terrorism on US soil.

“So many Iranians live in the United States, study in the United States, engage in business in the United States, which one of them have engaged in terrorism?” the top Iranian lawmaker asked.

Larijani questioned the effectiveness of the travel ban, arguing that terrorists “seldom to never” enter a country under their own names or nationalities.

“President Trump and American officials are aware of this. The terrorists must be defeated at the source. Where are their sources? Where are they? They are in Afghanistan, in Syria, in Iraq,” he said.

Trump’s initial version of the travel ban caused much confusion in January with visa holders being kept off flights or barred entry on arrival in the US.

Lower courts blocked that initial directive, forcing the president to issue a revised order intended to overcome legal hurdles.